Mario Modiano

Mario Modiano, who has died aged 86, narrowly escaped the Holocaust to have an
eventful post-war career with The Times; in retirement he researched the
history of his far-flung family, whose members ranged from Rabbis to
manufacturers of cigarette cards, and included the painter Modigliani.

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Modiano in the Salonika ghetto in 1943

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Modiano on the Acropolis in Athens

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Mario Modiano

7:36PM GMT 07 Feb 2013

He was born on May 9 1926 into a Jewish family in the northern Greek port city of Salonika, to which his ancestors had moved from Italy in the 16th century. The Modianos probably originated in the Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella, though Mario also explored the theory that they might be descendants of the Jewish captives whom the Roman emperor Titus took to Rome after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Modiano’s father, Sam, a journalist, numbered a long line of rabbis in his branch of the family; his mother Nella was herself from a prominent family from Aragon in Spain. The household rang to the sound of French, Judesmo, and Greek. Mario acquired perfect English at the private Zahariadis school, which taught in English in the afternoons.

Shortly before the Germans entered Salonika in 1941, the Modianos tried to escape south, but a beach rendezvous with a sailboat did not go to plan and they were forced to return home. “We felt trapped,” Modiano said later. They were sent to the Jewish ghetto but, as Italian Jews were exempt from the Nazi racial laws, Sam Modiano appealed to the Italian consul to claim Italian nationality for himself and his family. In this manner the consul, with Sam Modiano’s help, managed to get 138 families out of the ghetto.

Mario Modiano watched his best friend, whose family had not been able to claim such protection, taken to another camp, from which he was sent to Auschwitz. Thus the Jewish community, which until Salonika became Greek in 1913 had for centuries been the largest in the city, more populous than Greeks or Muslims, was almost destroyed.

The Modianos escaped to Athens in June 1943 on an Italian military train. Soon after their arrival, and the collapse of Italy, the Germans took over responsibility for Athens from the Italians and started searching for Jews. The Modianos were sheltered by Christian friends but there were fraught moments when German patrols passed the house.

On the liberation, Mario Modiano found work as an interpreter with the British forces in Greece. This led to his first job in journalism, as assistant to The Times correspondent, the war hero Frank Macaskie. When Macaskie left Greece, Modiano was taken on as his replacement. He remained in the position for 38 years.

Modiano was deeply informed about Greek political culture and personalities, and keen in pursuit of a story. He was an early port of call for British diplomats seeking information about the Greek political scene. Above all he was proud of his insight in an article in February 1963 that the maelstrom of Greek politics could encourage the dangerous ambitions of “some anonymous colonel”. His fears were realised in the Colonels’ coup d’état of April 21 1967.

He was contemptuous of the clumsy and sometimes brutal initiatives of what he called “a band of uncultured and inept army officers”. When a regime rent-a-mob attacked the British embassy after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974, intimidating the wife of the British Ambassador, Modiano telephoned the Greek press minister and told him he should be ashamed for assailing a woman stranded on her own. The attack was called off. Days later Modiano was delighted to report that the Colonels’ regime had collapsed.

Modiano retired in 1990 and devoted his energies to family history, embarking on a record of the Modianos worldwide, which was published online in 2000. There turned out to be Modianos on every continent except Antarctica. Until his death he was still adding new names to the record, to join the famous, such as the artist Modigliani, the author Patrick Modiano, and Saul Modiano, the Italian manufacturer of cigarette papers and playing cards. The book is now in its 8th edition.

On an Aegean cruise in 1963, Modiano met a young Turkish woman named Inci. He proposed to her while dancing in a nightclub on Rhodes, and they enjoyed 35 years together before she died. He could be seen in his later years strolling in the Kolonaki district, always neatly turned out, eager for news, and commenting caustically on the state of the pavements or the latest absurdity of Greek political life.